Huge reveals are here for new 9th Edition 40k Overwatch and reserves rules- check out how the GW team reworked the out-of-sequence shooting mechanic in 40k.
Coming from Warhammer Community, supplemented by commentary from WarhammerTV on Twitch, they’ve laid out the ground rules of how overwatch is going to work in 9th Edition. Everybody should see this.
BREAKING: Huge Changes to Overwatch & Reserves 40k Rules
Overwatch was revealed to have some key wording changes. Notice that is says Certain rules enable units to fire Overwatch. This means that you can’t just normally roll dice against your opponent’s charging unit any more unless certain conditions are met.
The GW team changed this because they felt that it was just a waste of everyone’s time. Who wants to roll some Grot Blasters out in Overwatch against a Knight…
So now that we know Overwatch is a conditional mechanic, they also revealed one of the ways a unit can actually shoot it’s chargers. Overwatch is now a 1CP Stratagem. Just like any other Stratagem, as far as we know, you can only use this once per phase so it’ll be up to the defending player of which unit they want to shoot back.
This is absolutely groundbreaking for melee armies as now, parking lot Guard/ Tau lists will be a thing of the past. We say that because only one tank will get to overwatch and once that’s concluded, a whole string of Ork Boyz will be able to tie everything up. We may be about to step into a meta of small blobs of well-rounded forces strung throughout the map. That way, players aren’t putting all their shooting eggs in one basket.
Even though overwatch took a beating, screens are still a great option to keep the nasties away from your shooting units. Even if your tanks get charged, it’s still not all doom and gloom. We’ve already seen that vehicles and monsters can shoot all their weapons in melee except for Blast weapons.
Overwatch & Melee Will Have a Play on Terrain
Some terrain will have the Defensible rule which can go one of two ways. Infantry inside can overwatch on a 5+, which will be brutal if you think about something like a Chaincannon Havoc squad. However, if you’ve got some assault marines hiding in terrain, you can also give them Set to Defend and have them hit on a 2+.
You may find that some units benefit from other special rules that modify Overwatch as well, such as the T’au Empire’s For the Greater Good special rule, essentially giving them two-for-one Overwatch fire – a brilliant use of a single Command point! One of our favourite new ones is a Battle Trait your units can receive as part of a Crusade force, permanently granting them FREE and improved Overwatch.
GW also previewed that Tau will still have a shooting presence better than any other faction when it comes to overwatch. Albeit still nerfed compared to 8th Edition’s overwatch mechanic.
For Crusade, you can give your units the Cool-Headed rule and let them overwatch on a 5+ and reroll Morale. A nice buff that can go great with a max squad of some boltstorm Aggressors!
Reserves Also Touched On
Be careful, though – a savvy enemy might be able to catch you off-guard if you’re in their deployment zone. The Strategic Reserves rule allows a unit to deploy on their own table edge, even if it’s within Engagement Range (1”) of an enemy, and proceed to make attacks as though they charged! This is such a situational rarity that it probably won’t come up very often, but a stunt like that completely bypasses Overwatch to surprise unwary or careless opponents.
Holy moly that’s a strong ability. If your opponent is overly-aggressive, you can bring on reserves within 1″ of the enemy unit. We’ve got all kinds of combos to talk about this in the future.
With the overwatch cat out of the bag, you may want to start rethinking some of your lists. While overwatch took a nerf, as we said before, screens are going to be the new MVP in terms of keeping charging units at bay.
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With all of this covered, what do you think about the new overwatch mechanic? Is this exactly what melee armies needed for that competitive edge?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
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Bio: Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4.
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